Linux Top 3: Parted Magic, Quirky and Ultimate Edition

Parted Magic is a very niche Linux distribution that many users first discover when they're trying to either re-partition a drive or recover data from an older system. The new Parted Magic 2017_01_08 release is an incremental update that follows the very large 2016_10_18 update that provided 800 updates. In contrast the big updates for the new release are:

The Quirky Linux distribution is part of the Puppy Linux family of distributions, providing users with a lightweight operating system. The new Quirky 8.1.6 update support Ubuntu 16.04, based applications through Quriky is built using a woofQ Quirky Linux build system.

Quirky Linux 8.1.6 x86_64 is codenamed "Xerus" and is built using the woofQ Quirky Linux build system, with the help of Ubuntu 16.04 binary packages. Thus, Xerus has compatibility with all of the Ubuntu repositories. The Linux kernel is version 4.4.40 and SeaMonkey is upgraded to version 2.46. Quirky is a fork of Puppy Linux, and is mainly differentiated by being a "full installation" only, with special snapshot and recovery features, and Service Pack upgrades.

"Ultimate Edition 5.1 was built from the Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerius tree using a combination of Tmosb (TheeMahn’s Operating System Builder) & work by hand. Tmosb is also included in this release (1.9.7), allowing you to do the same."

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at LinuxPlanet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.